Core Items
Notes Items that work VERY WELL with our little chipmunk so I wouldn't recommend you miss them on ANY build.

Basically, all builds should have these items!!!

The Crusher

Heartseeker

Void Shield

Power Items
Notes Damage and Bruiser options. bruiser Items are those that provide power and defenses or other tank stats like HP ( Blackthorn Hammer). If you do Gladiator's Shield, consider replace it late game. Core Items won't be displayed here!!!!

Ancile

Blackthorn Hammer

Bloodforge

Brawler's Beat Stick

Gladiator's Shield

Hydra's Lament

Jotunn's Wrath

Masamune

Shifter's Shield

Runic Shield

Runeforged Hammer

Soul Eater

Stone Cutting Sword

Titan's Bane

Transcendence

Arondight

Defensive options
Notes Some defensive options to help you stay alive. Use only if needed, always prefer bruiser items for jungle.

Contagion

Mantle of Discord

Spirit Robe

Hide of the Urchin

Bulwark of Hope

Magi's Cloak

Pestilence

Little giant chipmunk (High Early Pressure Build)
Notes Shifter's Shield provides a very good amount of power for an early game and if you start to die, it provides some defenses. You also are plenty of CDR and Pen. This is probably the easiest way to try to for a surrender due a hard snowball you can do. Late game however you are not tanky enough and you may also take a lot of magical damage.

You may also change the Void Shield into another defense like a magical defense if needed.

Relics
Notes See relics section in "Builds and Itemization" to know more about the relics.

Blink Rune

Purification Beads

Aegis Amulet

Heavenly Wings

Horrific Emblem

Ratatoskr's Skill Order

Dart

1X

315161819

Flurry

2A

246710

Acorn Blast

3B

18111214

Through the Cosmos

4Y

59131720

Purchase Order

Tank Chipmunk (Solo Standard Build)
Notes Standard Build for a Ratatoskr solo. The last item is totally situational and you should sell Gladiator's Shield and buy a new T3 item. In this case I chose Mantle of Discord because you can interrupt combos and get an CC immunity + high protections.

Ratatank (Extreme tank build)
Notes Situational build. My recommendation is always a bruiser build. This build will max you tank capabilities and you will use your kit for the utility proposes only 'cause your damage will be too low. You will not be able to secure a kill easily or do a decent damage like you would if you did a bruiser build. Use it when there's no other tank in the match (support is a squishy mage for example).

Magical solo laner
Notes Situational build recommended when you get a magical solo laner with low/no sustain in lane.

Vs. Healer/Strong lifesteal
Notes The last item is totally situational and you should sell Gladiator's Shield and buy a new T3 item. In this case I chose Mantle of Discord because you can interrupt combos and get an CC immunity + high protections.

Start
Notes This will sustain you enough time to get your acorn online at least. If you last until glad shield it's even better. You may buy Baron's Brew instead of Multi Potions if available

Warrior's Blessing

Chalice of Healing

Acorn of Swiftness

Multi Potion

Multi Potion

Multi Potion

Baron's Brew

Core items

Void Shield

Gladiator's Shield

Defensive Items
Notes This items will offer the protections you need or other important stats for a solo such as health pool. See more in Itemization.

Bulwark of Hope

Genji's Guard

Hide of the Urchin

Magi's Cloak

Mantle of Discord

Oni Hunter's Garb

Pridwen

Pestilence

Spirit Robe

Shogun's Kusari

Breastplate of Valor

Contagion

Hide of the Nemean Lion

Midgardian Mail

Offensive/Bruiser Items
Notes Some damage items to help you. Brawler's Beat Stick is a core item if vs. Healers. The preference here, for a solo build is always those items that offer protections too. See more in Itemization.

Ancile

Runic Shield

Stone Cutting Sword

Shifter's Shield

Runeforged Hammer

Masamune

Brawler's Beat Stick

Heartseeker

Relics
Notes See relics section in "Builds and Itemization" to know more about the relics.

Purification Beads

Aegis Amulet

Magic Shell

Heavenly Wings

Blink Rune

Horrific Emblem

Shield of Thorns

Ratatoskr's Skill Order

Dart

1X

315161819

Flurry

2A

146710

Acorn Blast

3B

28111214

Through the Cosmos

4Y

59131720

Introduction

Art by Hadassa

My name is x MysTeRioN z, a majority Xbox Player but sometimes I play on PC too. I'm a Brazilian nice guy who likes to play FPS, Racing, Plataform and RPG games. I like to study and read when I'm not playing and I'm also studying to be a lawyer. My xbox gamertag is the same as here: x MysterioN z.

I'm here to crack nuts and pick flowers bring you this quick guide to play with Ratatoskr on solo lane and jungle. My objective here is tell every single detail about rat and his gameplay and create a giant and informative guide (such as my Love, find your mark!).

Credits on the Image

"Hey, keep your eyes off my nuts" - Ratatoskr

I want to tell you everything you need to know about this cute little guy so you can play with him in solo or jungle. I personally love this character because he is fun, funny and has the best VP and personality on the entire Smite and whoever disagree is wrong >:( !!!

Pros

Excellent Early/Mid game
As most part of the junglers Ratatoskr shines very soon at early game when you have your acorn online. Then he can easily apply a lot of damage even though you don't build him as a glass canon.

Excellent chase/escape potential
Rat can easily chase someone with his Dart and Through the Cosmos traveling probably more than 300 units in a matter of seconds or he may use both skills to escape alive from almost any situation.

Excellent pressure with ulti
His ulti is the best ulti of all junglers and one of the best ultis of the entire game. You can dive enemies that are not looking above and even apply CC chain since the knockup once applied cannot be interrupted.

Excellent Self Setup
Rat doesn't need anyone to help him kill someone, he has plenty of CC and stats along with damage to do that. So it means that on a gank, even though your teammate don't help you can easily succeed alone.

Great Burst
Rat can burst enemies very quickly specially with his combo using ulti during early and mid game and even though he falls a bit late game being not capable of 100-0 someone with a single cast of 1 combo it still a very decent amount of burst.

Easy to play (and stomp)
His kit is relative simple and can be played by anyone and due his strong early/mid game you are able to stomp the enemy team really easily, being able to maybe snowball hard. It's not hard stay 2 or even more levels ahead when playing with Rat.

Skills

Ratatoskr replaces boots with a powerful accorn from the tree of world. He can upgrade this acorn from anywhere and when fully upgraded, each time ratatoskr hits anything with a skill he is healed.

details

Useful passive that increases your early pressure. The healing helps at early, plus you can upgrade it out of base, so with a lot of sustain using healing potions and blue buff you can stay much longer at early game than almost any other solo.

In jungle, this passive is kinda questionable. Since you need to return base after the first rotation most times, to heal yourself/get some mana, the possibility to buy the acorn outside it does not make that difference (unless you pure rush it and go for some early kills). It does difference, but not as solo. The good point is that the minor healing it provides help you clear the camp (almost) without lose HP.

Ratatoskr go ahead dashing forward passing through minions and stopping after traveled 55 unities or hit an enemy god, what happen first. If he hits a god, the god are also slowed for 3 secs.

details

A decent dash with a high cooldown. Use only to escape/slow your target. The slow provided is good, but this is your 3rd priority. Be careful using this cause this dash is not so consistent, sometimes you pass through the god, sometimes you hit (if you have a high ping, such as people from console in South American continent, that are forced to play in NA servers). Also be careful using it to escape, if an enemy god pass in front of you, your dash will be stopped.

Each time the other skills successfully hits an enemy, the Dart cooldown is reseted by 1 sec.

Ratatoskr spins around himself in an area of 20 unities, doing damage and reducing enemy physical protections up to 4 times.

details

On solo, it's a decent damage in area capable of clear the entire wave/do a good amount of damage. Also you reduce enemy protections, useful in your fights. This skill is your 1st priority, always, unless you have some enemies that can easily stop it like Athena and her taunt, Hercules and his push with stun.

In jungle, still useful due the protection reduction and clear almost the entire camp with a single cast. Although I've seen people upgrading the Acorn Blast first in jungle, I recommend start with Acorn Blast and then prioritize this one. Just go with Acorn Blast if your enemies are stopping your Flurry.

Ratatoskr fire 3 acorns in a cone area each one dealing damage. Enemies hit by all 3 are also stunned for 1 sec.

details

2nd priority to upgrade. You will need to get closer to your target to hit all 3 acorns and get the stun.

In jungle, you can prioritize this skill instead Flurry due the insta damage and almost no casting time, but I personally recommend you start with this skill as your 1st one then prioritize Flurry. If your enemies are stopping Flurry, then prioritize this skill.

Ratatoskr chagers up and jump in a branch of tree of world. He can jump in more 2 branches and then choose a land location. Rat can stay 5 secs on the branches reseting 3 secs for each jump he does. When landing, rat does damage and knockup all enemies in the area. You can also cancel this skill to jump at current location (or when it times out) and if it is an invalid location, rat will land in last valid location.

details

Upgrade this skill as soon as possible to reduce its cooldown. This is where rat shines, his ultimate is a large distance ultimate that can travel a very good distance in seconds giving him a giant mobility. This can be used to gank, surprise enemies, secure kills and objectives and also to save yourself from some hotter situations. One of the best ultimates in the game for an assassin.

Skill Combos

Solo

solo combos

Wave clear

More than enough to clear the wave. Go in the middle of the wave between the melee and ranged minions and use Flurry. After it, go in the front of melee minions and hit them with Acorn Blast that will also hit the minions behind. Finish with basic attacks if you need.

Attacking the enemy solo

The combo to kill an enemy. Remember that MINIONS ARE PRIORITY AT EARLY GAME. Do not fight while the enemy has minions. Start with Flurry to reduce the enemy protections. Then Acorn Blast to stun. After Dart and basic attacks. Remember to use auto-reset (a basic attack after every skill used to enhance your damage). If you think you can kill him, Through the Cosmos and repeat the combo, but be careful, don't be suicide, don't dive towers without physical defenses and at early game.

Ganking other lanes

The combo when you are ganking an lane. First of all, be sure the enemy is in the lane. Use Through the Cosmos a little far from the lane (to don't be spotted by wards) and if possible behind the enemy or at least by his side (never use it in front of enemy), then land on him. Use Acorn Blast to get an stun, then Flurry to reduce the enemy protections and finish with Dart and basic attacks. Remember to use auto-reset (a basic attack after every skill used to enhance your damage)

Jungle

jungle combos

Clearing Camps (Economic)

The combo when you are clearing a camp without wasting mana. Use a basic attack or a basic attack chain then step back and fire Acorn Blast hitting all 3 minions and then finish with BAs.Remember to use auto-reset (a basic attack after every skill used to enhance your damage)

Clearing Camps (Quickly)

The combo when you are clearing a camp. Use a basic attack then step back and fire Acorn Blast hitting all 3 minions and then Flurry to finish and if needed a basic attack or 2.Remember to use auto-reset (a basic attack after every skill used to enhance your damage)

Ganking lanes using TTC

The combo when you are ganking an lane. First of all, be sure the enemy is in the lane. Use Through the Cosmos (TTC) a little far from the lane (to don't be spotted by wards) and if possible behind the enemy or at least by his side (never use it in front of enemy), then land on him. Use Acorn Blast to get an stun, then Flurry to reduce the enemy protections and finish with Dart and basic attacks. Remember to use auto-reset (a basic attack after every skill used to enhance your damage)

Ganking lanes without using TTC

The combo when you are ganking an lane and your ultimate is down/ you don't want to use it. Start with Dart for some slow and to approach the target, then Acorn Blast for a stun and finish with Flurry and basic attacks. Remember to use auto-reset (a basic attack after every skill used to enhance your damage).

How to play

How to play in Solo

solo

Early game

Watch you Health and Mana closely: Watch your Health and Mana. A Rat without mana cannot do anything and being at low health makes you a juicy target early game. Don't try to force fights unless you're confident you can either kill your opponent or escape alive. If in doubt, return to base. BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY!

Be careful with the mini-gods...I mean minions: Early fights usually happens with minions around. When you attack the enemy god, their minions turn to you and start to hit you. Be careful. Minions at early game are almost like gods and can do more damage than the enemy god (mainly the ranged ones) so be careful fighting around enemy minions, also you can use this tactic in your favor, trying to force the enemy fight near your minions. Also the wave has always priority over the totem of Ku!

Fight for the Ku: Fight for the totem, the early MP5 and movespeed it provides will be very helpful in lane phase letting you be even more aggressive! Also, it will probably help the support in duo casts more skills, the jungler that won't run out of mana and can cast more skills to clear camps faster and then gank lanes and the mid laner that usually casts a lot of skills and he may see himself without mana sometimes.

Be aggressive with moderation: At early game you do a lot of damage, even if you have only your acorn, use it at your advantage. Just a few characters can beat you on solo lane at early game (like Chang'e, Geb), Hercules...). If you see any opportunity of attacking the enemy solo, go for it, specially if you have some minions providing land support.

Attack the enemy tower: When you reach level 8~10 when you will have your first defense item, attack enemy tower as soon as possible putting pressure. If you see things are getting too hot for you Through the Cosmos to get out of there.

Never dive a tower at early game: Diving a tower at early game is a difficult task even to warriors/guardians (true tanks), so think now about you...No way. NO MATTER WHAT EASY THE KILL IS, DON'T GO.There are high chances of dying in the process and even die without the kill. A tower shot is half of your HP (or more) at early game.

Mid game

Your rotations are important: As soon as possible (when you destroy the enemy tower usually) start to rotate and gank other lanes. Remember: Your ultimate is so powerful and useful so don't be afraid of use it.

Invades: Invade is the tactic of try to steal farms of the enemies such as buff and jungle camps. Rat can easily do it and mainly if you have cooldown you can try do this. Remember that your lane is priority so invades are only possible after clear you wave just because the wave gives much more XP and gold. Your priority to invade must be the enemy blue buff. A lot of characters are mana hungry and controlling it can be a nice way to win the lane/force your enemy retreat or play safer. You can risk yourself and go to steal other camps like the enemy speed, but only goes if TTC are online, due the obvious reason that you can easily escape with it.

Help your teammates with their objectives: Although you are not a carry, you have a nice damage on basic attacks, so use them in your favor.

Diving towers: Dives are possible now are possible now that you have physical defenses. Let the enemy with low health and finish him with Through the Cosmos and the other skills ( Flurry and the acorns) then use Dart to get out of the tower.

Combining skills and Defending Objectives: Try to combo your skills with your teammates to defend/attack objectives such as Gold Fury. Use TCC to land into the battle surprising the enemies.

Late game

Tanking: At late game be careful because you are not a true tank. Focus in eliminate the enemy squishy targets (usually the jungler, adc and mid). Be careful tanking objectives as Phoenixes or the Titan, you can't hold them much longer.

Focus the Squishy targets: You usually (using the standard build) still have damage and still tank, so squishy targets, although they have a good damage, probably will suffer in your hands since you do a considerable damage and do not take that much damage.

Splitting Splash (Splitting Push): Splitting Splash (Splitting Push) is the tatic of force and advance minion waves on one lane, usually the opposite of where is happening fights to take down objectives, forcing enemies get out of the fight to defend it or lose the objective. You can clear the wave easily with your skills and you AS/damage on a power or bruiser build is good enough to take down entire towers. Your ultimate at late game will give you a nice split push capacity. Try to split other lanes and if they come to you use your ultimate to escape, but be careful, your team will miss you a lot in a teamfight, so don't forget about your team to do this, it does not worth.

Saying goodbye to your acorn: As you probably know, Ratatoskr is faster than other assassins due his Acorn of Yggdrasil that provides 20% of movespeed, not only 18% like any other boot does. When you sell it late game and buy Elixir of Speed, it provides only 18% which means you will be slower, and trust me, this 2% is something that you notice, so, unless you REEEEAAAAALLY NEED something different, I strongly recommend you buy an item that increases your movespeed like Masamune.

How to play in Jungle

jungle

Early game

Watch out with your Speed: People in this meta are dumbs and want to invade your speed. So, if you face the enemy got your speed, unless he is low HP, DO NOT FIGHT. Just go to your mid tower and if he keeps with the invade (goes for the XP camps or Blue) call your mid and solo to help to kill this motherf*cker. And never ever try to invade. You are weak until have your kit online so be careful. FINALLY IT'S OVER!!! If you think someone will be idiot enough to insist on invades, then get HoG.

The Jungle Shrine: Every time you farm a certain amount of jg camps you earn a stack and can change this stack for gold in this...uh...totem? Anyway, you don't have to return every time to get it, you can just ask for your mid do it for you, and mids will probably get used to it later in this season. Every time you return to get your speed go check this objective. If you notice your mid isn't smart enough to walk there and hit basic attacks to get the gold, start to check it more frequently.

Start being passive: Try not fight without your skills. Until you reach level 3 I don't recommend you fight unless it's inevitable. Just do it if you are facing an enemy god worse at early game and even though I recommend you always ask for help.

If you are new and don't know the jungle rotations, follow this basic rotation guide:

map

Legend:

Start on the Speed. Defend your speed, if you think someone will try to invade it, get Hand of the Gods.

Follow the blue indication that is the standard rotation yet (it is optional skip the blue buff if your solo lane is a Cu Chulainn)

Fight for Ku is usually not recommended, your solo can do it and if he can't...well that's too bad. It doesn't worth the efforts (and time) for you.

Do the camp neutral mid camp (if it is already done, skip this step, obviously)

Move to the other side and do the harpies then go to red buff.

Follow the map and go to the back camps.

Finish your rotation with the purple and if is possible gank duo. Return to base after that OR go back to your speed and repeat the process.

When your acorn (and maybe some other part of an item) is done, do the the Oracles. Avoid kill it too early because it has no utility yet except for gold and XP, but they hurt you hard early on, so Acorn is needed to defeat them without lose a lot of health in the process.

Repeat the process through game and start to gank lanes at level 5 or earlier if you see an easy kill walking around.

Rotations may vary depending of your elo/game situations. This is just a standard first levels rotation.

You may also follow the red line to secure the mid camp early and be sure the enemy will not take it maybe giving you an advantage on XP. Then go to your back camp and blue. It is possible to go to your back, mid harpies then blue, but you will lose some time doing it that might end up being the same thing than lose the mid harpies. You also may gank solo if you see the enemy is dying, else just go to red and do the normal rotation.

You can also go to gank left lane after red buff and then do the harpy, purple and back camps then move back to shrine/your speed/base.

Be Aggressive: After all 3 base skills are online, be aggressive. The early game is yours so be aggressive and make some early ganks if the enemy are at a bad position to get some early kills. Especially when you get lvl 5 and unlocks TTC, be aggressive. "A good rat is that one which TTC is almost always in cooldown because he is using it to gank all the time".

Fight for the Ku: It's a good idea help your solo get the Ku right after a gank, but remember that the totem DOES NOT make the solo a priority. If it's viable, gank it and then get the totem, ok, but if it isn't, also ok. Totem status are something useful, yes, but not something that worth sacrifice yourself to get it. Also solo laners usually CAN'T CARRY GAMES late game so don't prioritize Solos over mid/carry (The name is "solo" and not "duo").

Unlocking Through the Cosmos: When TTC* is online, this is when the real fun begins. Start ganking using it to surprise your enemies. ALWAYS call to your teammates follow your attacks to increase the chances of success. You can also use TTC to escape from a tough situation such as when you jailed by Ring of Spears or linked to Paolao or even when there are too many enemies all around you.

Farming and getting bigger: Rat has very good clear wave and can easily stay 2 or more levels ahead if played right. Remember to farm as much camps and buffs as you can and you can also farm minions lane when you teammate has returned to base as long as he is not stacking nor is behind. Do not forget ganks but also do not be like "only ganks", find a way to match both things in a perfectly balanced way.

Mid game

Start to rotate:. Usually the solo is the most independent lane, so prioritize the Duo Lane and Mid Lane. Remember that Solo characters most part of the times can't carry a game, but Mid and ADC can, so focus making the enemy adc and mid behind. You may still ganking the solo just to lower the pressure. Also, solos usually have protections so they can easily tank you and some solos have also early damage like Tyr so it's possible he turn the gank against you and kill you. Anyway, prioritize Duo and Mid most part of the times.

Pay attention on the lanes: As a Jungler, you have the task of lower the pressure in lanes by making a gank. If you see your ally is being forced play too much passive or in his tower, try to make a visit to the enemy there ;) .

Diving a Tower:Unless you have some physical protection as Void Shield, try to avoid tower dives. But if you trust on your skills and you are totally sure that you will get a kill and get out alive, then good luck! (but my recommendation is "better safe than sorry")

Invades: Invade is the tactic of try to steal farms of the enemies such as buffs and jungle camps. Rat can easily do it and mainly if you have cooldown reduction you may try it. Some buffs have priority such as Speed (yellow) and Damage (red), 'cause a enemy without speed means less speed to reach camps and ganks and the red I think I don't need say anything :v , but be careful, invading in jungle is a much more complicated task. You have to be sure about what you are doing and if you are not losing anything else (for example, you invade and secure enemy damage camp, but the enemy secures your speed and mana (blue), so it didn't worth.). Also be careful, instead you help a teammate you go steal some camp, it doesn't worth too. Remember that now with free wards everyone can see that you are invading and even gank you so, avoid do it unless you are really sure about what you are doing and also, just go if you have TTC online, so if anything goes wrong, you may still get out from there alive.

Late game

Late game came, what should I do?: This is where you fall apart. If you did a bruiser build, you probably are not doing a big amount of damage, and if you did full power you probably are dying for anything. This is the time you have to use carefully your brain. Follow the next tips.

Group Up: Stay close to your team and help them do the remaining objectives. Try to use you kit to help them get kills and Secure some people trying to get out alive using TTC. Try to go to their backline, where the ADC and Mid are (usually the 2 biggest source of damage late game) and try to put them out of combat.

Spliting Splash (Push):You can be a good distract, since you pretend do a split push and when enemies came to your position you get out of there using TTC and a teammate can do a real split push on the opposite side or to force enemies stop fighting with your team. If no one comes, you can destroy the tower/phoenix, but be careful to don't let your entire team without help, it doesn't worth.

Saying goodbye to your acorn: As you probably know, Ratatoskr is faster than other assassins due his Acorn of Yggdrasil that provides 20% of movespeed, not only 18% like any other boot does. When you sell it late game and buy Elixir of Speed, it provides only 18% which means you will be slower, and trust me, this 2% is something that you notice. Nothing that will make impossible to play with him but still a difference. You may buy a SCS or Masa from katana tree to keep your move speed up. You also will lose completely your passive once you sell your acorn so no more healing from skills (unless if you have Soul Eater).

Warding

what are these points?

Red and White - Offensive Wards. Places you may ward to know where the enemies are going. Yeah, some of them are risky to place however they offer a very good reward to your team anticipating the enemy movements and maybe avoiding ganks saving your life/teammates lives.

Blue and White - Defensive Wards. Places you may ward to defend your jungle. You can do it to avoid invades or even to make an enemy pay for invade you. When losing, these wards can save your life since you will know from where the enemies are coming/where you should go to retreat.

Yellow and White Stars - Key objectives. When they are available you should never lost vision of these. Place Sentry Wards to defend them and do not allow enemies take them. If everything is too quiet and you don't have vision of these objectives, go check them immediately.

Builds and Itemization

Before read this section, remember that Solo and Jungle builds are completely different and your playstyle will also be completely different too, so, don't forget to click on the "Solo build" button on the top right near the "Newest gods part" ;) .

How to Build

Now I will talk about of how you should build Rat properly, what your build must have to be decent and viable on a Ratatoskr.

how to build

What a rat build must have?

Power: Ratatoskr has a big power spike and decent scalings so power is essential on his build to make him a big threat. Avoid build a rat with low physical power or you may not have a decent performance.

Penetration (flat and/or %): (essential for jungle): Flurry + some flat pen items and you are doing almost true damage on the target, especially early/mid game and as you all know, the closer to the true damage you are the better is. You also may get a %pen like Titan's Bane if the enemy got some defensive items.

Defenses: (essential to solo): Rat has a big fall curve late game and tend to die extremely quick at late game teamfights if he doesn't have any kind of defenses so it's high recommended that you build some defenses on him.

What a rat build may have?

% Penetration: If you are facing multiple tanks then consider buy Titan's Bane. The more protection the target has, the more pen you will have and for squishes you still have Flurry to reduce their protections. Usually Void Shield is enough and in extreme cases Titan's Bane.

Mana: Rat casts a lot of skills which makes him mana hungry and if you are not carefully enough, will see yourself out of mana a lot of times. Transcendence or any other mana items can be a good choice most part of the times.

HP: Well defenses by themselves don't make you a tank. If you really want to tank some damage you will see yourself needing some HP (especially because your HP pool is the lowest of all the assassins) so, items providing HP also can be a good choice most part of the time, like Blackthorn Hammer (can also solve mana problems).

Anti-heal: Some enemies will require anti-heals if you want to beat them and ability based anti-heals like Brawler's Beat Stick or even Pestilence can be decent options for you if you want to fight in a 1 vs 1 against an enemy with healing or lifesteal.

Ability Lifesteal: Soul Eater has been popular on him recently because since you cast skills a lot, why not heal yourself with them combining with you passive from Acorn of Yggdrasil? Most part of the times you should be well served with this item as your lifesteal.

Utility Items: Generically, items with some utilities for your match like Bloodforge to keep you alive after killing someone on a teamfight, Masamune to get extra protections for each enemy god around you, Magi's Cloak to absorve a hard cc...

What a rat build mustn't have?

Crits: Rat has progressions on his basic attacks meaning you will never apply all the crit damage you could plus he doesn't have stick potential to keep him near the target hitting basic attacks (he has chase potential, it's different.)

Pure AS items: like Hastened Katana, Golden Blade, Odysseus' Bow...For the same reason as above, he has progressions meaning his basic attacks won't apply all the damage possible and he also can't stick to the target to keep hitting basic attacks.

Lifesteal from Basic Attacks: For a obvious reason that you won't keep yourself hitting basic attacks on the target so items like Asi shouldn't be built.

% Pen from basic attacks: The Executioner 'cause you won't hit basic attacks on the target to proc in a decent way this item passive.

Builds

In this section I tell you pros and cons of each build and for each situation each build were made for. If you wanna see comments about specific items on the builds, them go to the "Itemization" section.

Please don't forget to read the notes of each build, they have important comments ;)

jungle

Standard Build Example
(Bruiser Jungler)

Standard Jungle Build. Metas come and metas go but since the rework, the bruiser ratatoskr stands proving this is the best way to build our cute annoying chipmunk. The Crusher offers flat pen to hurt squishies hard, power, attack speed to better AA reset and clear camps with extra damage per skill (all four skills), everything on your single item. Then you go to Transcendence to get a lot of mana and power so you won't need to worry about your mana pool anymore + when fully stacked it brings a GIANT POWER SPIKE. Then Void provide offensive stats such as power and Pen but also defensive stats with HP and Physical Prots. Right after you build a magical defense, I chose Ancile 'cause it can be very useful when getting close of an enemy plus gives you decent amount of power allied with cdr (You may also get Runic Shield, I know the passive isn't that strong at mid game but this is the tankiest item with magical prots that also offering power, so if you really want to tank a mage mid game without lose power, that's the only option). Then you go to Arondight that will provide you giant power spike (75 power with CDR), extra burst and MS after using your ulti providing an INSANE chase potential and creating one of the Deadliest ganks in the game. And for last but not least, after you've bought the Elixir of Speed and got 2k gold in the pocket, you can sell your acorn to buy Heartseeker. It provides insane damage and offers extra damage based on the % HP of each target and procs on all your 4 skills!!!. Phew...Perfect build!!!!.

Little Giant Chipmunk
(High early pressure build)

An alternative way to go jungle. Shifter's Shield provide a big power spike on early game (35 + 35 with its passive) allied with protections if you start to die + the 50 power from your acorn, wow, that's a lot of power for the first game minutes. Then crusher and Aron to increase the pressure and ta dam: A snowball!!! The rest is the same of the original build, Power, pen and Heartseeker keeping your damage decent late game with the addition of the Jotunn's Wrath adding the CDR instead of Pridwen. Warning: build a bit too glass canon than the normal.

Glass Cannon Chipmunk
(Full damage Build)

A full power build that can really explode the enemy with a single combo. Early/mid game, with this build, you will easily win, but at late game you can't jump into a fight without dying, you still doing massive damage late game, but probably will die in the fight. So this build is recommended when you get brainless enemies and you get very ahead of them so you can abuse and try to force a surrender before late game. If they didn't surrender and you feel that you are starting to die very quickly or taking too much damage, start to rush some defenses such as Mantle of Discord, Void Shield...

solo

Tank Chipmunk
(Standard Solo Build Example)

This build offers generically everything a solo rat should have and were made to most part of situations. This build were made for you take an advantage early game and mitigate some damage late game keeping your damage always as higher as possible for a solo laner. Recommended for controlled aggressive play style, which means, that you can be aggressive early game but not that much. This build cannot make you an extreme tank (mini Hercules) and also cannot make you get closer to warriors or guardians when talking about mitigation, you still an assassin, you just can hold some good amount damage, but you still an assassin, meaning you will still doing a decent damage late game. High recommended for "Split Splash" (split push some lanes). Sell your Gladiator's Shield late game and buy Pridwen, then the acorn to buy Masamune (after you already have Elixir of Speed).

Ratatank
(Extreme Tank Build Example)

This build will provide to you a very good tank capacities. You DO NOT DO A GOOD AMOUNT OF DAMAGE, as probably you are used to with rat, bbbbuuuuutttt, you also will not die easily and can be a genuine front line with this. If you are not facing a physical enemy, rush Pestilence after Gladiator's Shield and if the enemy also is not a healer maybe Genji's Guard or Oni Hunter's Garb are better options to rush first. For last but not least Lono's Mask will make you an EXTREME TANK mitigating a very good part of the damage you take but also you won't be able to do damage since it removes your damage on the other hand. Extremely situational build. Replace Gladiator's Shield with Mantle of Discord and the acorn with Lono's Mask.

Tank Chipmunk 2
(Alternative Solo Build Example)

This build offers generically everything a solo rat should have and were made to most part of situations. This build were made for you take an advantage early game and mitigate some damage late game keeping your damage always as higher as possible for a solo laner. Recommended for controlled aggressive play style, which means, that you can be aggressive early game but not that much. This build cannot make you extreme tank and also cannot make you get closer to warriors or guardians when talking about mitigation, you still an assassin, you just can hold some damage, but you still an assassin, meaning you will still doing a decent damage late game. High recommended for "Split Splash". Sell your Gladiator's Shield late game and buy Pridwen, then the acorn to buy Masamune (after you already have Elixir of Speed).

Builds have important things write on notes, don't forget to check it!!!!

Itemization

In this section I will see how some items works on Ratatoskr and their viability in a build to this "god".

Itemization

offensive and bruiser items

Offensive Items and Bruiser Items

ArondightJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability:Medium

This item has a excellent passive and stats for the price. Well you all know how difficult is to run away from a rat and this item will make this even harder. This item offers a giant movespeed boost to chase down enemies allied with a slightly burst in both basic attacks or abilities (what happens first) while also gives a excelent amount of power and CDR, literally everything a jungler rat needs. You may also build it as a boot replacement on solo, if you are fed. And the price? not too expensive for the stats, totally worth in jungle as 3rd or later item.

Final considerations: Almost excellent in jungle and can be useful in solo if you are ahead.

Runeforged HammerJungle Viability: Medium
Solo Viability:Medium

Providing a good amount of HP allied with a decent physical power and a passive that works pretty good with you since you have 2 CCs (knockups doesn't count for this item) that applies its passive and for a reasonable price, this item can be a decent option if you are looking for some extra burst power for jungling. In solo lane, the HP is good and the power is also welcome, but you usually don't build items to purely apply damage on this role so this item is questionable and should be used on specific situations when you need HP + damage. The most CC your team has, the most viable this item becomes.

Blackthorn HammerJungle Viability: Medium to High
Solo Viability:High

Even with the nerfs this item provides a good amount of HP early game + a passive that gives you cooldown or mana, changing according to what you need, and some power, everything for only 2,200 gold. Totally worth in both roles and mainly early game, but it is almost a must item on solo lane since you will have to be a tank and rat has the worst HP pool of all assassins. Just remember you can do well without this item in jungle, it isn't a must item in that role.

Jotunn's WrathJungle Viability: Medium to High
Solo Viability: Medium

This item offer a huge CDR allied with mana power and pen being an excellent item for those who look for maximize the use of your skills. In jungle, good item, high viable but due other items also offering passives allied with CDR, this item have fallen a bit in JG. In solo although it still functional, however if you are looking for cooldown you can find it on items with also defenses as Ancile (onseelay) better for solos.

HeartseekerJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: Low

This item offers very good stats and a very useful passive that avoid you become that guy who kills one person on teamfight and die, applying extra damage on your skills based on the target HP and how much power you have. Core in jungle as a late game item, because all your skills can proc it easily making the traditional "rat falling at late" statement not so true, avoiding a giant fall as it used to be for more power builds. In solo this item has almost no function. Since you will not be able to build a lot of power, the passive is basically locked on the minimum proc and the stats also doesn't worth for a solo laner, so, unless your team is fighting against a heavy tank comp and need help with the DPS, avoid this item on solo.

The CrusherJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: Low

In jungle jhis item offer nice stats early game and a useful passive that apply extra damage on your combo, helping with burst damage plus the AS is good for early camps clear. Recommended to be built early. I don't see any motives to build this item on solo lane.

Brawler's Beat StickJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: High

It offer nice stats at all and can be useful even when the enemy does have healings/huge lifesteals. Gives you power and penetration and stop part of the enemy healing. A must item if there are Gods that heals in the enemy team or huge lifesteals as Anubis with double or triple lifesteal. Extremely easy to apply with your skills and plus, in solo all enemies uses something to sustain themselves, selfhealing, potions, lifesteal, and you counter everything with just one item.

Hydra's LamentJungle Viability: Medium
Solo Viability: Low

In jungle it works decently and nothing to complain about it. Good stats and Ratatoskr can make AA cancel (Also called as "Auto reset"), and his first hit on progression is 1x, so you can enhance your burst damage on your ganks. In solo, I don't see nothing that can help you (MP5 = You have blue buff, you won't have much power for AA cancel and the other stats are not good enough for solo)

TranscendenceJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: Medium to Low

In the jungle, Trans brings a high power, perfect for you due the scalings of your abilities and also provides a huge mana pool letting you be much more aggressive and cast a lot of skills without say "out of mana". In solo I can't see much useful for this item. Yeah, it can be a decent item to keep you ahead (if you are), but honestly, there are better items for solo.

BloodforgeJungle Viability: Medium to High
Solo Viability: Medium to Low

In the jungle, Bloodforge brings a high power without stacking but for also a high price, perfect for you on the scalings of your abilities and also provides a lifesteal on your basic attacks (not so useful) and a very good passive that can help you stay alive to attack other enemy or retreat after get a kill, so you can go hard on a squishy target and after the kill you are protected by a little shield and also gain a boost on movespeed. In solo, this item doesn't have much utility, since you are not going to get a lot of kills and if you are looking for lifesteal on solo, then buy Soul Eater that is more useful, however this item provides a very good amount of power without stacking and it can be a decent item to keep you ahead (if you are), but honestly, there are better items for solo.

In the jungle, this item can be useful if fight against a tanky comp with people using 3 or more gods building protections. Against squishy targets, buy flat pen items that combine better with you Flurry. In solo, it can be useful for the same reasons but you as solo usually are not interested in do a good amount of damage on enemy tanks.

Void ShieldJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: High

Physical protections, power and health, everything you need in both roles. Recommended to be build at mid game so you can combine with Flurry making yourself able to hit tanks and squishies.

Shifter's ShieldJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: Medium

Physical protections, power a lot of power. You gain 70 physical power while above 75% health and when below it, 35 protections (Physical and magical). Extremely good if build it early on jungle, allowing you start a snowball due the huge amount of power + defenses when dying. In solo it also works, but there are better options and your focus in solo is get somehow tank, and this item only has a decent amount of protections if you are below 75% of your health, so, useful if ahead, bad in normal conditions/behind.

Runic ShieldJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: High

Excellent item for a cheap price. Provides a good amount of power, decent magical protections and HP allied with a passive that reduces the enemy power. Useful at early game, when the enemy barely has power but falls a bit mid game and the passive is almost useless late game. So, this is the most magical tank item that also provides power so, you may still with the item late game due the stats.

AncileJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: High

Excellent item for a cheap price (not so cheap now with the nerfs). Provides a good amount of power, decent magical protections and CDR reduction allied with a passive that silences the enemy. Useful if you are fighting agaisnt a Cerberus solo and he uses Ghastly Breath or Belch of the Gods of Bacchus stopping these skills cast and since rat easily get closer of his enemies apply this passive isn't a problem for you.

MasamuneJungle Viability: Medium to High
Solo Viability: High

This item will give to you some health and power. Plus the passive makes you gain some tankiness while near the enemies. An excellent replacement for your Acorn of Yggdrasil late game in both roles, though in jg you might prefer replace it with Heartseeker.

Gladiator's ShieldJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: Very High

What's make rat so good at solo? This item is one of the keys to answer it. A MUST ITEM if you are facing physical enemies. This item restores part of your health and mana for each time you hit a damage skill on an enemy god, and since rat has 4 damage skills, you can easily apply this healing yourself so much and plus you have the healing from the Acorn of Yggdrasil too. This item works very well with him and can be even better than Soul Eater if you are build items with health and you also don't have to stack this one. Viable even in jungle for the same reasons. Remember that this an EARLY GAME item and should be build as the 1st or at max the 2nd item after your acorn and you can change this item late game for something more useful.

defensive items

Defensive Items

Breastplate of ValorJungle Viability: Medium to Low
Solo Viability: Medium to High

For jungle this item CAN be useful when you are facing multiple physical threads and its offering physical defenses, mana, mp5 and the most important, cooldown reduction letting you use your skills more often including your ultimate, that can REALLY SAVE YOUR LIFE/SECURE A KILL. However in jungle you usually are looking for power and burst, so you may consider this item sometimes, but Void Shield is definitely a better option in most part of the times. In solo this item is good, mainly if combined with Soul Eater or Gladiator's Shield that will let you heal a lot due the cooldown, but remember that a bruiser rat is always recommended just in some cases you should build a full tank.

PridwenJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: High

For both roles this item is more than good. Provides an okay amount of both defenses allied with huge CDR reduction with a passive that is helpful whenever you use your ulti to engage a fight.

PestilenceJungle Viability: Medium to Low
Solo Viability: Medium to High

For jungle this item CAN be useful protecting you from the enemy magical damage, excellent when there is a mage building high pen early on, looking for true damage/ you also counter enemy healings of all types, but still very situational in jungle, you are served most part of the times with Ancile (on-see-lay). Same for solo. Combining this item with Brawler's Beat Stick will remove a good amount of healing from your enemy, but again, if there aren't healing/double or triple lifesteal, brawler's is more than enough to reduce the enemy healing then build onseelay.

Stone of GaiaJungle Viability: Low
Solo Viability: Low

Easily countered by anti-heals, something very common nowadays, and no defenses makes this item kinda useless since the HP and Mana can be EASILY replaced with Blackthorn Hammer that also offers CDR and Power.

Hide of the UrchinJungle Viability: Medium
Solo Viability: High

This item offer really nice stats for you in both roles. In jungle, especially when you are ahead, build this item provides nice protections and good mana/health + after the stacks the shield is very welcome to you jump into the fight. In solo this item provides everything a solo laner needs so, it's high viable. This item is better be built as 3rd or 4th item since you need to stack with kills and assists (unless your conq match is more like an arena match).

Mantle of DiscordJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: High

Provides CDR, high protections and a useful passive that can really help you stay alive/secure a kill. This item is very efficient in both roles and ir recommended you build it as an late game item (5th or 6th) or even the replace for Acorn of Yggdrasil late game after (and if) you buy the Elixir of Speed due the high cost it has.

Spirit RobeJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: High

An item to consider instead of Mantle of Discord. This item provides less protections than discord, however, it also provides 20% CC reductions, that is awesome in teams with a lot of stuns, fears, taunts...And also a decent passive that can make you even more tanky on solo and really helpful on jungle, when you are catch by CCs. In teams with high CC, do this item instead of Mantle of Discord, in other cases you can go by discord way, but this item still a good option and can also be considered.

Magi's CloakJungle Viability: High
Solo Viability: High

Provides a good amount of health, minor protections and a passive that can be helpful on Hard CCs comps or when there are people that would burn your Purification Beads easily like a Xing Tian. This item is so useful that can be used in both roles most part of the times as a 3rd or later item.

Bulwark of HopeJungle Viability: Medium
Solo Viability: Medium to high

Provides a reasonable amount of health, decent magical protections, some cc reduction and a passive that can be helpful on saving your life/stay you alive for some extra time giving you a max shield of 350 HP capable for 20secs when you are dying. (internal cooldown of 60secs). Solo can be extremely useful to keep you tanking something like a tower for a little more and can be also used in jungle if you are facing a mage that has a heavy burst on his kit.

Lono's MaskJungle Viability: Extremely Low
Solo Viability: Medium

Provides a good amount of health, some physical and magical protections, some cc reduction and a strong passive that can make you a TRUE tank, but...you will not able to do a good amount of damage. In jungle, don't even think in build this, completely useless, but, in solo, if your team already have a giant damage output you can build this to be fully able to invade a tower/phoenix/titan and tank it. Due the nerfs on the damage dealt, I believe this item do not worth so much anymore.

Genji's GuardJungle Viability: Medium
Solo Viability: Medium to High

Provides a decent amount of health, high magical protections, some cdr reduction, a very good amount of MP5 and a good passive that can make your skills become online faster. In jungle, this can be decent situational defense against magical enemies, and a good way to stay you in battle for more time due the MP5. In solo, can be a strong item 'cause all the stats are welcome on a solo Ratatoskr, so, if you are not building Ancile, consider this.

Provides an amount of health, good magical protections, some cc reduction, a very good amount of MP5 and a good passive that can make you be more tank when in the middle of your enemies, applying extra mitigation when enemies are near you. In jungle, it is useful if you are being kind of suicide and jumping in the middle of the teamfight and the enemy team focus you, and for solo, same thing, but you naturally have more defenses when solo so you will see this item efficiency increased.

Hide of the Nemean LionJungle Viability: Medium
Solo Viability: Medium to High

Provides a good amount of physical protections, some mana and a good amount of MP5. This item has a good passive that can punish basic attackers like any hunter, AA junglers or solos, reflecting part of the damage of a basic attack back to them. Situational to when you have multiple AA attackers, but functional.

Tips to your match

Your job as solo is now start fights, tank a little and help your team get kills. You are NOT supposed to be a totally tank and frontline in a team fight.

Help people whenever is possible. Remember you have Through the Cosmos, one of the best ultimates in the game, so USE IT.

Hold your ultimate in case of ganks (if solo), or hotter situations, 'cause you can really save yourself. I strongly recommend you build some CDR.

If solo, you can be aggressive and push your lane against your enemy tower and if you see yourself in trouble just retreat using your ultimate or Dart. By doing this, you will force your enemy solo stay near the tower more than the normal, lowering the possibilities of he gank/help other lanes and making him lose some money.

Remember that Elixir of Speed provides only 18% movespeed, while Acorn of Yggdrasil provides 20% and trust me, it does make difference. So if you feel "slower" late game, that's the reason.

Random Facts

Ratatoskr used to have 4 different acorns at his launch, each one doing something different (opening a lot of possibilities of builds)

All ratatoskr skills were balanced/modified when he was reworked at patch 3.9.3413 (May 24, 2016).

Ratatoskr is mentioned in INCREDIBLE 21 different patches where ONLY 1 WAS A BUFF. The rest of patches were bug fixes, the rework and nerfs after nerfs. (And yet he is NOT WEAK!)

Art by TheYaminoTenshi via FurAffinity

Ratatoskr used to be able to use, incredibly, 6 dashes of 35 unities when he was launch using dart Dart. Every dash could fire lightnings that were able to crit, allowing ratatoskr to deal almost 8k damage with this skill against squishy comps. That's 1 skill, you had other 3 :p.

Ratatoskr rework was a mistake because it removed his other acorns keeping only one as single option and his kit became a " Thor but better", until Thor, at patch 6.8.5557.1 (July 24, 2019) received major buffs and a slight rework on his 3, making now Thor a " Ratatoskr but better". At least Rat is more fun/funny than Thor.

Ratatoskr received since his launch 33, I repeat, THIRTY THREE nerfs and ONLY 2 buffs in all patches he is mentioned. Ironically, these 2 buffs were reverting previous nerfs.

The skin "Squirrel Squad" could have been based on the character Rocky the Flying Squirrel from the american cartoon The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends.

The name "Ragnatoskr" is a mix between the word "Ragnarok" and "Ratatoskr". As you see, he wears a costume of Fenrir, the bringer or Ragnarok. Rat shouts a lot in this skin Voice Pack.

On his festive Skin, Rat is dressed as like Rudolph. He also seems to sing when saying his "Ultimate is ready/down" line. This skin has the most calm voices lines.

Kitsune is the only skin where Rat is not a Squirrel, instead, he is a Fox. This is the first time a Ratatoskr skin with a custom VP doesn't mention nuts and it's also one of the few skins in the game to use cell shading (which made it kinda "ugly"). It also has 2 recolors, Kage (Shadow in Japanese) and Zenko. By having all the 3 you automatically unlock Final Fusion skin.

The Curious Creature, he's best skin is a reference to the Disney movie Zootopia. This skin was based on A Fan art made by Ena Lorenzo, who work at Alacrity Arthouse and made a draw called "Smetitopia", honestly, best skin theme ever. Both this skin and Heavy Hitter Anubis are in the card art of Geek Beak Thoth skin, that shares its theme with both.

Rat also have one of the most annoying laughs in the game. His Standard VP is also pretty damn good, better than a lot of Standard VP and better than a lot of skins...Including Curious Creature.

Final Considerations

"ACORNS! Hum, yummy!!!" - Ratatoskr

Best Ratatoskr skin ever (Curious Creature)

My conclusion is that Rat is working very good at solo lane (An A solo laner), and still a good character at jungle (an A+ jungler) and can be a very fun character to play in both roles. He also has excellent skins, a funny personality with also funny voice lines and is very cute :3 . Can't see any reason to not play with him :v and have a lot of fun!!!!

Following the quick guide I posted here you will do a nice job with him in both roles!!! So let's go now, let's throw some Acorns around :p !!!!

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Art by Zennore via DeviantArt

Don't forget to leave your upvote if you liked this guide and a comment ;)

Quick Comment

I signed in just to share my experience with this guide and withRatatoskr, the god that I saw for first time back in arena and joust, when i was pretty newbie, I said, "Who's this little guy and why nobody picks him?" Then bough him, despite he seems very weak, but he can actually set off someone by just doing 2 and 3 and some autoattacks, I obviously build him with rare items like full critics or AS, then i started playing conquests, mostly of my experience came along, when i met this guide because the builds that I took from arena was garbage and weren't working, I tried some of your season 6 builds, which worked a lot, also these tips served me very well, enough, that i started using Rat in solo as well, the only way i could lost a solo lane were going against a Bellona or an Arthur.

I started playing rankeds and experiencing with the building, now I ended using a build like this:
Start with tier 2 Acorn, Jungle bless and a potion, obligatorily drink the potion when I'm clearing the XP camp next to the Speed one and the shrine and then clear the solo's camp, it will give enough time to be at the totem of Ku at 0:55, something that can make a difference is getting a little money boost at the start, take it, After doing Ku's, i can start jungling normally, an average build i would do is something like this, and his explanation:

Acorn of Yggdrasil > Transcendence > Jotunn's Wrath > Hide of the Urchin > Void Shield / Arondight > Runic Shield and then, the last item which I allways do Masamune OR any defensive option. Transcendence after the Acorn so you can start stacking earlier and get the extra mana, mp5' and power scale, next, Jotun's instead of The Crusher, ¿Why? Because the crusher never does all the damage you want, +15 flat pen, attack speed (which is not that important), power and an useful passive that can hurt your enemies and also can hurt you if you don't get it, but there is why Jotun's instead, +10 pen, +20% CD reduction and 250 mana that can scale power with trans is exactly what you need to literally burst everything early game, possibly the best choice to definitely avoid being out of mana and full cooldown on every skill. Next is a bit catchy, I'm not so fan of getting Void Shield just because Hide of the Urchin is cheaper, very easy to stack and grants you 51-51 protections, 250 health and mana; the protections because, Rat really needs it to not being the average squishy jungle, and also a shield, HP and Mana that really heps you to tank a little as well as kicking ***. Next is between Void Shield and Arondight; Void Shield because of his passive and these 60 physical protections and the power (I forgot how much power) to keep kicking ***, Arondight because it grants +10% CD reduction, 90 PHYSICAL POWER and a passive that can mark the way of the match's middle game phase just by engaging on every teamfight as you can, its potential to reveal near enemies and chase them and the damn power which is allways welcome on Ratatoskr. Runic Shield is pretty the same as Void Shield; protections, power and health, I would not get Ancile because its passive is not as good as it can be (1s silence ON MAGICAL ENEMIES, lol, what a lame), and also The % CDR you already have with Jotunn's and Arondight, also, it should be late game , where you commonly buy some 500g potions that provides +10% CDR, another reason to avoid Ancile. Last item is completely optional, because i sometimes keep my Acorn because of its 20% movement speed and power, I end up selling it for speed potions but NEVER RUSH IT because it isn't that necessary, after that i would get Masamune, as Mysterion said, these 2% extra MS is missing a lot, but i remark that there is an option for any defensive item such as Oni's hunter garb or even Pestilence, both are extremely optional, because there was a match where my team could no anything without a frontline, and our frontline were a full dmg Ymir, I sold most of my items to build a tank Ratatank and manage to take dmg, doing dmg and pick kills very well in way to a turnover, that type of situation is which I would completely change my build.

Finished, ¿Any opinion?

Also, Thx Mysterion, your guide helped me to master one of the most undervalued, misunderstood and funny gods to play, also in solo, it's so ironic that i can bully the lane to some muscular dudes and mad lads WITH A SQUIRREL lol!, even on rankeds. +1 :D

Can you explain to me why you start T2 acorn instead of starting with Mace or morning star. IMO those starts are stronger as you can upgrade acorn while jungling so when you go for a first gank you can have 20 or 25 power as you will have reached the 700 gold at that point (and not yet the 900) instead of 10.

Also, Thx Mysterion, your guide helped me to master one of the most undervalued, misunderstood and funny gods to play, also in solo, it's so ironic that i can bully the lane to some muscular dudes and mad lads WITH A SQUIRREL lol!, even on rankeds. +1 :D

Well let's start so. Nothing against your 3 first items, they work pretty well. Also, as you probably would be snowballing at this time, nothing against urchin, pretty decent IMO. Void Shield is a great item to him, not only because you gain defensive stats but also because it works as your "% pen", so you become able to damage reasonably tanks considering you also have Flurry to lower even more their pen.

I dislike Arondight when cobined with Jotunn's Wrath and Trans because you would reach 40% CDR and when you get now the new damage pot, it overcaps de CDR. If you build Trans + Aron + 10% like Hydra's Lament I think that would better. Again, not a big issue, but could be better.

Runic Shield late game, now with the nerfs I really think that it's questionable. Before the buff it provided a lot of HP with magical prots and power, everything you need, even though you were "wasting" its passive. Now providing less HP, I am preferring going with Ancile, that has some functionality on all game stages on engages. And you go last with Masamune, I'm pretty ok with that though by not having Heartseeker you will lack A LOT damage late game. Sure you can take and stay on fight a bit more, but I think it's way more fun da damage oriented rat on jungle, especially considering you already bought (and probably stacked) on of the most tank items in the game, Urchin. If you didn't get urchin, I would consider masa, as jungler, else not.

I edited your original comment to add in some database linking, and separated paragraphs better for easier reading.

Also, Runic Shield late-game isn't very good IMO, and I 100% do not think it's comparable to Void Shield. They have different function, with Runic having better effect early and falling off hard late. Void ends up being more functional with the % protection reduction later in the game against tanks.

If you pick up Runic, it should be picked up early game, and pretty much only in Solo for the most part...not in Jungle.

I edited your original comment to add in some database linking, and separated paragraphs better for easier reading.

Thanks, I'm not acquainted to BBcode and that type of things.

I meant not to mention Runic Shield as a must do item such as Void Shield but it's just an option I sometimes do when Solo and I realised that I added Runic on a Jungle build and even one of the last items! anyway, thanks for the correction.

Should I run HOG? Is it worth buying straight off the bat? I noticed it kinda helps with speed in clearing camps but it really doesn't seem that useful, but I see a lot of other junglers using it. Also, should heartseeker come sooner or later? It seems like I fall behind if i purchase it too late, but it also seems like I die more often when I get it sooner, whats a good time to get it?

I would completely avoid getting HOG instead of a potion to start, due to the balance changes, mostly of people didn't noticed that the shrine acts like a guard at the first minute of the match, that also slows and applies a mortal debuff on those who thred on.
So there is no need of HOG.

I would get a Health potion instead of HOG because I mostly ask to the middle laner to ward the harpies, so I can clear the harpies next to the shrine by doing an auto attack chain THEN use the potion, which gives enough time to clear the mana buff in way to arrive harmless at the totem and proceed to secure it, or at least, thats how I like to start jungling, I find the that the totem is most important that the harpies and also the solo laner allways thanks me.

>I find the that the totem is most important that the harpies and also the solo laner allways thanks me.

If you mean Totem of Ku, It's not. Mid harpies are more important to contest. Also if you're wasting time in Solo trying to get Totem, chances are the enemy mid/jungle will just invade your team's Red buff.

>Also if rou're wasting time in Soll trying tk get Totem, chances are the enemy mid/jungle will jsut invade your team's Red buff
Ikr, I never take care of Toten which is Solo's care, I just secure it when it's available at the minute 1:00 by just doing Basic attack, Flurry and an Attack chain, it takes just 5 seconds, then start the jungling.
The remain of the totem proceeds to be completely Solo's care
Mid harpies, again, if you ask your Middle to ward with the shard, it should be easy to catch the enemy jungle trying to clear it, just do Acorn Blast

Securing Red buff isn't even a problem (At least if you or your Middle do something really stupid).

You can't catch the enemy jg if she is like a good early clear as Awilix or anyone with reasonable clear + HoG.
Also if the enemy clear mid and go for an Invade, it would be really hard for you stop him considering you won't have Dart for mobility

I agree that it seems very situational and I personally wouldn't do this unless I was very comfortable with the role and matchup and was playing with friends where we could coordinate a starting strategy.

Besides the very situational cases that DukeSloth showed in his video, you can take that base concept and apply it to try to steal the enemy Damage buff, though it also requires some planning and some luck.

Specifically, you won't go to the Mana buff (Solo will have to clear themselves), and you hope the enemy does the standard route to their Solo's mana, which will put you way ahead in rotation. You'll clear Speed like usual, then you have options to clear the back XP camp, or get further ahead in the rotation and go to the mid-harpies and clear. From there, pressure the enemy mid, and cut directly over to their Damage buff, where you'll use HoG to help quickly steal. You can then try to clear the nearby back XP camp and then back to base if you feel safe enough, or wrap back around to the Duo side camps.

Hello Squatch,
First about HOG. Can be a decent option to speed up your early clear to contest the mid harpies (in this case secure it with no fights) or even use it to secure the harpies. I can't see much use of it outside the "anti invade". I personally think the potions allow you to make some early ganks and some sustain to get your acorn online + t1 item on your first rotation, so it's better in IMO.

About Heartseeker, it depends what you like and if you are fed or not. If you get a lot of kills and got fed you can build HS instead of Pridwen and let prid be your last item. But if you are not fed, at least for me, better safe than sorry, so follow the traditional build. Just do pick it too early like 3rd or 4th item because people don't have decent amount of HP to proc its passive decently and it's also too expensive for an early item. Usually a good spot is the 5th/6th slot.

Just a comment, the "fall behind" you talk about is very common on Ratatoskr I also mentioned it. Your kit has pretty decent damage and setup early game but late game, although you have damage due your high scalings your are TOO squishy for the damage you take. So late game, fight with your team until you have your HS online and avoid fight alone/vs tanks.

I think Crusher is a solid 2nd item. The AS will help with his camp clear when he's not using his abilities, and the flat pen is important early game.

I'm a bit less sure of Stone Cutting Sword in the 3rd spot. Yes, the MS is always appreciated...and yes, he can attack cancel between abilities and in those chances he can get maximum effectiveness from the item. That said, I think he might be better served with a bit of CDR here, or pure flat pen. I'm not saying this item is a bad choice, just that I think there might be better ones. Brawler's Beat Stick or Jotunn's Wrath come to mind as both have additional flat pen, or if you want to stack at that point, Transcendence.

I wonder how effective Void Shield will be in the mid-game...since the change from flat protection reduction to 15% protection reduction, it's not bad against any god at that point that has built at least 1 physical protection item, but if your main focus is to target the back-line squishies, I don't know that this is best at this point. It's absolutely an option, but not sure it's the best. You might even consider a pure defensive item, since that seems to be the trend since there's less flat pen (particularly on the magical defense side).

I've never used Arondight so you're best to identify how good it is in that position. I don't think Pridwen is as good of an option, though, when to that point you've only built a single protection item (Void...SCS doesn't quite count).

Heartseeker, of course, is a solid item no matter what, and it fits well in that last position.

The Crusher is just the perfect early game item to him, every single stat helps Rat a lot. Stone Cutting Sword can be useful because you will have the AS from Crusher and with Void losing flat pen I think you need to replace that flat pen with another item. Not sure if SCS will be the best option here, but the price for the MS, power pen+protc seems to worth anyway. This is something I can only tell with details when season arrives, but I do think this item will be a great option for rat now. Also, you don't need CDR that early on Rat. Usually your engages can only apply 1 combo so it's not that necessary, you can build for the ulti only though. I was thinking about switch SWS with Arondight but I'm not sure...

IMO, Void Shield will be a great mid game item because enemies will have decent pen vs squishes and tanks. It also brings power, good amount of physical protections (advantage vs the enemy jg and ADC as well the solo (usually)) and also HP, welcome on the assassin with the lowest HP pool.

Arondight brings insane amount of power and CDR for a reasonable price allied with a passive that is extremely useful when you jump on fight letting you get an additional burst damage to focus quickly a target then move to another one due the movespeed increase. Pridwen comes as the main CDR item, bringing protections + a shield (180 HP shield) when jumping on someone. It's very useful due the slow, the minor shield and CDR. If you switch it for another item, I recommend that you build a defense. I really doubt Rat will be good full power.

That's my initial thoughts, some of them I'm already sure about it, some of them I need see in practice on Jan 28th.

Hello Gaseous,
Well to jump from the current branch you are, just cancel your skill using The Right Mouse button. If you use your the left one he will jump to another one until you have jumped to all 3 branches.

About the combos, if you checked the combos sections in both jungle and solo, the combo you described is already listed. And yes, you should use 4 to apply the knockup, then 3 to apply the stun, then 2, the main source of damage and protection reduction, then 1 to apply the slow and keep your target closer to you and for last, finish with basic attacks. If you don't start with your ulti, then start with your 1 skill the combo and follow the same order.

Building Transcendence in a jugler is keep your power late game. As you know rat tend to fall off a bit late game and if you build trans you avoid a good part of this fall. I don't build it for the mana, I build it for the power, same for blackthorn, when I combine both I want the CDR and HP from it, not mana or the MP5 passive.

Your build is pretty ok. The acorn still useful late game and you usually don't need to sell it if you don't want. I just really recommend sell it if you built Soul Eater, because there are no reason to keep it late game if you have SE, so change it for Masamune

Building Transcendence in a jugler is keep your power late game. As you know rat tend to fall off a bit late game and if you build trans you avoid a good part of this fall. I don't build it for the mana, I build it for the power, same for blackthorn, when I combine both I want the CDR and HP from it, not mana the passive.

Doesn't the protection reduction from Flurry make you deal more damage overall?

Yes and no. Yes it does, but at stage 1, acorn blast has showed to be more functional 'cause it's a "faster damage" (just press the button and the damage is applied and the stun too, no need to stay spinning like a beyblade around the camps) and it stuns the minions so you take less damage from camps + it applies more damage too, meaning in the end, you finish the first camps faster.

I love how in depth this guide is. Really helped me a lot. Just one question. Why a trans on damage build? Why not rush into a jotunns, then hydras, crusher, bloodforged, and maybe then a spirit robe for late game, then possible titans after you sell acorn?

Just curious because thats how I've been doing the high damage if I'm just trashing people.

Now to your question: Why rush trans on a full damage build? By saying this, I'm assuming you are talking about my jungle "full damage build example", correct me if I'm wrong.

Why trans first? Well, you are a Ratatoskr so you won't miss any damage early game by doing trans. When it is finished, you will have a lot of mana, keeping you more time in the jungle, farming, and letting you use and abuse of your skills, plus, trans gives A LOT OF POWER when fully stacked, so you will become literally a beast mid game. Then I go to Hydra's to enhance the burst power and jotuns to get full cooldown. As said in the notes of this build, the objective is just build a full power rat, if you wanna some bruiser rat (that I personally recommend), you can check the other builds, including the standard build.

Your suggestions are also fine, although I would get TB before spirit robe.

In your build example writeups, you may think about discussing the specific merits of your item choices in those examples. For instance, your 2 tank builds start with Breastplate of Valor, which is obviously for facing physical Solos...but the other part here is that you start out with high CDR, which might allow you to change your gameplay up a bit. But you don't talk about the early CDR at all. That's just one example.

Other choices are definitely situational, but your Extreme example has both Pest for anti-heal, and Midgardian for anti-basic attack. Fine examples, but only if you're facing multiple basic attackers, for example, and the Support doesn't get Pest themselves.

Your Jungle alt build example 2 overcaps CDR...just FYI.

In your ability chapter, your blue grammar "This skill resets Dart cooldown in 1 second" makes it sound like you use the ability, and Dart becomes available in 1 second. Obviously that's not the case. The statement you want to use is "This skill reduces Dart's cooldown by 1 second."

Feel you should offer an example of skill leveling. It's fine that you describe in the writeup, but quick reference at the top is important.

Spoilers within spoilers don't work, unfortunately. Suggest getting rid of those as it just adds clutter.

Since Rat's strength is in early-mid, you may consider talking about trying to steal farm in those sections of the game. Would allow you to place some aggressive wards as well.

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